Text composition spacing amount setting device with icon indicators

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for setting a text composition spacing amount for a DTP system. At least one inter-character-class spacing amount setting table, for use in line composition, groups similar characters, forms a plurality of character classes and sets inter-character spacing amounts between a character class of a previous character and a character class of a next character within a pair of continuous characters. A display device displays electronic text that has been line composed. An input device receives user input. A spacing amount setter is operable to start in response to user input, to display a dialog box for user input of a spacing amount between the character class for the previous character and the character class for the next character, and to display in the dialog box an icon representing the character class for the previous character and an icon representing the character class for the next character.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of prior U.S. provisionalapplication 60/235,260, filed Sep. 25, 2000.

BACKGROUND

The invention relates to desktop publishing (DTP). In electronic linecomposition, a spacing amount between adjacent characters must be set inorder to arrange a series of input characters in each line in anelectronic text. In electronic composition based on Japanese text, anextremely large number of characters and many types of characters mustbe processed, and therefore it is necessary to rationally set thespacing amount based on character attributes. In practice, however, eachpublishing company has its own rules, and in existing electroniccomposition systems it is complicated to set the spacing amount betweencharacters. This leads to operations that are difficult and hard tounderstand for a user. JISX 4051-1995 provides guidelines for linecomposition and describes inter-character spacing amounts, but does notaddress how a user can easily and rationally set inter-character spacingamounts.

A character spacing amount is required when arranging input charactersin each line in an electronic text. In electronic composition, linecomposition involves properly adjusting the spacing amount based onprocessing of characters that cannot appear at the beginning or end oflines and each character's properties, and so on. Therefore, presetvalues for the spacing amount are provisional in line composition, andultimately the spacing amount is adjusted in line compositionprocessing. The inter-character spacing amounts are determined to someextent by the contents of an electronic document, and therefore it isimportant in electronic composition that a user be able to easily andquickly set this type of spacing amount.

As described above, in existing electronic composition art a user canset the spacing amount between a pair of adjacent characters. Anelectronic document in which Japanese is present has a large number ofcharacters and character types, so there are many possibilities forsetting spacing amounts. Accordingly, when performing text compositionspacing amount setting, a user does not immediately know what sort ofsetting items are being set, so the spacing amount is likely to be seterroneously.

SUMMARY

In general, in one aspect, this invention provides methods andapparatus, including computer program products, implementing and usingtechniques for setting a text composition spacing amount in a desktoppublishing (DTP) system. At least one inter-character-class spacingamount setting table, for use in line composition, groups similarcharacters, forms a plurality of character classes and setsinter-character spacing amounts between a character class of a previouscharacter and a character class of a next character within a pair ofcontinuous characters. A display device for displays electronic textthat has been line composed and an input device receives user input. Aspacing amount setter displays on the display device a dialog box foruser input of a spacing amount between the character class for theprevious character and the character class for the next character, anddisplays in the dialog box an icon representing the character class forthe previous character and an icon representing the character class forthe next character.

Advantageous implementations can include one or more of the followingfeatures. The character classes can include one or more of (1) startingparenthesis, (2) ending parenthesis, (3) characters that cannot appearat the start of a line, (4) non-centered punctuation, (5) centeredpunctuation, (6) period, (7) comma, (8) repeating characters that cannotbe broken across lines, (9) preceding abbreviation code, (10) followingabbreviation code, (11) full-width ideographic spaces, (12) hiragana,(13) Japanese characters other than character classes (1) through (12),(14) full-width numeral, (15) half-width numeral, (16) half-width Romantext, (17) start of line, (18) start of paragraph, and (19) end of line.

A user selection of either the character class of the previous characteror the character class of the next character in the dialog box can bereceived. A left side display column can be provided for icons of thecharacter class for the previous character and a right side displaycolumn can be provided for icons for the character class of the nextcharacter in the dialog box. The device can display an icon representinga selected character class, among a plurality of classes, for theprevious character in the left side display column, and display an iconrepresenting a selected character class, among a plurality of classes,for the next character in the right side display column.

The invention can be implemented to realize one or more of the followingadvantages.

A user may easily and quickly set inter-character spacing amounts inelectronic composition. A user may selectively use a simple settingsmode and a detailed settings mode, which provides flexibility in settinginter-character spacing amounts according to a user's level ofexperience or the contents of an electronic document undergoingelectronic composition.

A user may easily confirm which setting items have their spacing amountset and eliminate the possibility of erroneous spacing amount setting. Auser's ease of use may increase. A user may select a basic (simple)settings mode or a detailed settings mode and set text compositionspacing amounts, which increases the flexibility of setting spacingamounts. Spacing amounts may be set by user input in a dialog box, andan icon may be displayed for each character class for each setting itemin the dialog box, so visual feedback is provided to the user.Therefore, the invention allows a user to perform input quickly andwithout causing errors.

The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth inthe accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features,objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thedescription and drawings, and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a DTP system provided with atext composition spacing amount setting function in accordance with oneimplementation of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a DTP system based on ageneral-purpose computer provided with a text composition spacing amountsetting function in accordance with another implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing showing part of a screen during editing ofan electronic document displayed on the screen of a CRT in a DTP system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of a text compositionspacing amount setting function based on one implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a dialog boxdisplayed when “basic settings” is selected in the text compositionspacing amount setting function in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a display example corresponding toFIG. 5 but when the spacing amount unit is selected as “Japanesefractional ‘bun’ unit” display.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing one example of a dialog boxdisplayed when “detailed settings” is selected in the text compositionspacing amount setting function in accordance with the invention.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are a schematic diagram showing one example of a spacingamount association table used in “basic settings.”

FIG. 9 is a schematic drawing showing a list of file names of spacingamount setting tables stored in a spacing amount setting file.

FIGS. 10A and l0B are a schematic drawing showing one example of aspacing amount setting table stored in a spacing amount setting file.

FIG. 11 is a schematic drawing showing the dialog box in FIG. 7 when“detailed settings” is selected and the inventive text compositionspacing amount setting function changes to “character that cannot appearat the start of a line” as the previous character class.

FIG. 12 is a schematic drawing showing the dialog box in FIG. 7 when“detailed settings” is selected and the inventive text compositionspacing amount setting function changes from previous character class tonext character class.

FIG. 13A is a flowchart showing the algorithm for icon display in thedetailed settings dialog box.

FIG. 13B is a schematic drawing showing an icon table used in spacingamount setting.

Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an electronic composition DTP system 1, in accordance withone implementation of the invention. The DTP system 1 includes a DTPprocessing control device 2 that can execute electronic composition suchas layout and editing, a display device 3 that can display data beingprocessed, an input device 5 with which a user can input various typesof data such as graphics, text, control instructions, and an outputdevice 6 for outputting processed data. The DTP processing controldevice 2 includes a composition controller 2 a for controllingcomposition, a layout controller 2 b for layout and editing, and a fontfile 2 c storing font information, which are the attributes of text tobe output for display, printing, and so on. In the system shown in FIG.1, a font file 2 c contains a CJK font 8, which is a font forideographic characters, such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean. In addition,in the system shown in FIG. 1, the composition controller 2 a includes aline composition controller 7 a that arranges within a line a pluralityof characters that are being composed in electronic composition, aspacing amount setting file 7 b that sets a spacing amount. The spacingamount is the spacing from the start of a line or the end of a line fora character arranged at the start of a line or the end of a line,respectively, and the space between pairs of adjacent characters withina line and that is used when doing line composition. The compositioncontroller 2 a also includes a spacing amount setter 7 c with which auser can set the spacing amount set in the spacing amount setting file 7b.

The display device 3 can include any type of conventional display devicesuch as a CRT, LCD, and so on. The input device 5 can include akeyboard, a pointing device (mouse, track ball, track pointer), ascanner, a communication interface, and so on. The output device 6 caninclude a printer, an external memory device, and so on. The DTPprocessing control device 2 can include a processor or memory, such as aCPU, or an electronic composition processing program that includesvarious program routines, such as a composition control routine, layoutand editing routine, that is loaded into a memory and processed by aprocessor. On the other hand, the DTP processing control device 2 canalso include, in whole or in part, hardware made into firmware.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a DTP system 10 in which the textcomposition spacing amount setting function is performed by ageneral-purpose computer system. The system includes a CPU 11, a memory12, a CRT 13, a hard disk 14, a keyboard 15, a mouse 16, a CD-ROM drive17, an FD drive 18, and a printer 19. These units are interlinked inoperation by a bus 9. A DTP processing program 7′ is installed in thesystem 10 together with other electronic editing programs. The DTPprocessing program 7′ includes a line composition control routine 7 aused in electronic composition, a spacing amount setting file 7 b usedin electronic composition and a spacing amount setting routine 7 c thatenables a user to set the spacing amount in the spacing amount settingfile 7 b. The DTP processing program 7′ and the other electronic editingprograms can be installed via the CD-ROM drive 17 or the FD drive 18, orcan be downloaded via a communication network, such as the Internet, andbe stored on the hard disk 14, for example. In addition, a layoutcontrol routine or the font file 2 c can also be stored on the hard disk14. The DTP processing program 7′ stored on the hard disk 14 can bestarted by a user operating the keyboard 15 or the mouse 16, and isloaded into the memory 12 as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the loaded DTPprocessing program 7′ exists in both the CPU 11 and in the memory 12,and constitutes the DTP processing control device 2, and contains as apart thereof the spacing amount setting file 7 b and the spacing amountsetter 7 c. Therefore, in one aspect of the invention, the inventionprovides a computer program product, tangibly stored on acomputer-readable storage medium (for example, a CD-ROM, FD, tape,semiconductor memory, and so on), that can convert a general-purposecomputer system to a DTP system 10 provided with the inventive textcomposition spacing amount setting functionality.

FIG. 3 shows a part 20 of a screen display of the display device 3 orCRT 13 during DTP processing in the DTP system 1 or 10 shown in FIG. 1or FIG. 2. Specifically, FIG. 3 shows a situation in which “new” wasselected in a pulldown menu obtained by clicking on “file (F)” 24 on themenu bar, a new electronic document having a page layout grid 21 wasopened, a text tool 22 a was selected in a tool box 22, a frame 23 fortext alignment was demarcated and text including of a multiplecharacters was input in the frame 23. In the example shown in FIG. 3,the text input into the frame 23 has been arranged in a plurality oflines and each character in each line has been arranged based on aspacing amount between a character and the start of the line or the endof the line, or between pairs of adjacent characters with a spacing thatis preset for the start of the line, end of the line, and inside theline, respectively. If two characters are disposed adjacent to eachother in the same line, the spacing amount set between them based ontheir character attributes is stored in advance in the spacing amountsetting file 7 b. Also, in practice, when multiple characters aredisposed in one line, those characters are disposed in the line based onthe spacing amounts obtained from the spacing amount setting file 7 bfor those characters and the line composition control routine 7 aappropriately adjusts the spacing amount by processing characters tatcannot appear at the start of a line, and the characters are suitablydisposed in the line.

The line composition control routine 7 a refers to the text compositionspacing amount when disposing a plurality of characters in a line, andif necessary it disposes characters in the line while adjusting thespacing amount within the allowed range, so it is necessary to set thespacing amount for the characters used in advance. In addition, thespacing amount set for a plurality of characters disposed in a line maydiffer depending on the contents of an electronic document, or accordingto a user's preferences, so a user needs to be able to set the spacingamount. Also, it is important that this sort of spacing amount settingbe flexible and easy for a user to use and capable of quick setting.Specifically, when the spacing amount is set based on user preferencesor a standard used in a particular publishing industry, the spacingamount is sometimes not set frequently; once an appropriate value hasbeen set, it is subsequently essentially not reset. In addition, in linecomposition setting the spacing amount is usually not a fixed matter;sometimes a preset spacing amount is appropriately adjusted when doingforbidden processing, and so on. Therefore, it is not always necessaryfor the user to perform detailed spacing amount setting; sometimessetting a typical spacing amount is sufficient.

In electronic composition such as that described above, user setting ofthe text composition spacing amount is desirable. It is also desirableto have a DTP system provided with a spacing amount setting functionwith which a user can easily and quickly set the spacing amount. Theinvention provides a text composition spacing amount setting device anda text composition spacing amount setting program that can be used in aDTP system. In other words, the invention includes a text compositionspacing amount setting function incorporated in a DTP processing system,and makes it possible to start a text composition spacing amount settingroutine by selecting “text composition spacing amount setting” in apulldown menu displayed by clicking “format (T)” in a menu bar on thescreen of the CRT shown in FIG. 3.

The general processing for text composition spacing amount setting basedon the invention is shown in the FIG. 4 flowchart. As described above,when a user left-clicks with a mouse on “format (T)” 25 in a menu bar onthe screen of a CRT, a pulldown menu is displayed (step S1). Next, whenthe user clicks with the mouse (step S2) on one of the setting modes inthe pulldown menu—“basic settings” or “detailed settings” in “textcomposition spacing amount setting”—the dialog box for the selected mode(step S3) is displayed according to the selected mode. For example, ifthe basic settings mode is selected, the basic settings dialog box isdisplayed (step S4), and if the detailed settings mode is selected, thedetailed settings dialog box is displayed (step S6). FIG. 5 and FIG. 6show two examples of the basic settings dialog box, and FIG. 7 shows oneexample of the detailed settings dialog box. In the basic settings modethe number of user-settable spacing amounts is limited to those usuallyneeded in setting, so when setting the spacing amount in basic settingsmode, setting is performed using the spacing amount relationship table(step S5). On the other hand, in the detailed settings mode the spacingamount is set individually with direct access to spacing amount settingfile 7 b.

As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, a “detailed settings” button is providedin the basic settings dialog box, and a user who user clicks on thisbutton can switch from the basic settings mode to the detailed settingsmode (step S7). A “basic settings” button is provided in the detailedsettings dialog box, and a user who user clicks on this button canswitch from the detailed settings mode to the basic settings mode (stepS8). In addition, a file name can be given to a spacing amount settingtable that is modified or newly set according to this text compositionspacing amount setting routine, and it can be saved in the spacingamount setting file 7 b (step S9, S10), and this routine can be endedwith or without saving (step S11).

The text composition spacing amount setting routine outlined above,which is based on one implementation of the invention, shown in FIG. 4,will be explained in additional detail below. First, if a user selectsthe basic settings mode, the basic settings dialog box shown in FIG. 5is displayed. Specifically, in the dialog box shown in FIG. 5, “setpunctuation full-width” is displayed as the item selected for “Japanesetext composition.” This “set punctuation full-width” is the name of afile selected from among a plurality of spacing amount setting tablesstored in the spacing amount setting file 7 b. That is, the spacingamount setting routine 7 c saves the file names of a plurality ofspacing amount setting tables stored in the spacing amount setting file7 b as shown in FIG. 9. Also, by displaying a pulldown menu in the“Japanese text composition” list box in the FIG. 5 dialog box, a usercan display as a list the file names of a plurality of spacing amountsetting tables saved in the current spacing amount setting file 7 b.Also, a user can select with a mouse the desired spacing amount settingtable from the list thus displayed, and the current spacing amount valuestored in the selected spacing amount setting table is displayed in thedialog box.

Furthermore, in the implementation shown in FIG. 9, the list of filenames of spacing amount setting tables stored in the spacing amountsetting routine 7 c is stored classified as “default settings” and“individual settings.” “Default settings” stores the file names for 14spacing amount setting tables. These are tables in which spacing amountsettings that are generally and frequently used are prepared in advanceas default settings. Preferably a user should not be able to modifythese default setting files. A user can instead modify the spacingamounts from the default values only for the spacing amounts that needto be modified and save the modified spacing amounts as a separate file.As shown in FIG. 9, in this implementation a spacing amount settingtable can be saved in “individual settings.” For example, if a userwants to create a spacing amount setting table with almost the samesetting values as “set punctuation full-width,” which is the defaultsetting table in FIG. 5, but somewhat different spacing amounts, theuser clicks on the “new” button in FIG. 5. This allows the user to entera file name for a new spacing amount setting table and the newly enteredfile name is displayed in a box beside “Japanese text composition.” Anew spacing amount setting table can now be created by modifying orentering spacing amounts in the FIG. 5 dialog box, and the new spacingamount setting table is saved in the spacing amount setting file 7 b.The file name of that spacing amount setting table is saved in the“individual settings” section of FIG. 9. A spacing amount setting tablesaved in the “individual settings” section in this way can be retrievedany number of times by specifying that file name in either basicsettings or detailed settings, and the spacing amount settings can bemodified and saved. A spacing amount setting table whose file name isstored in the individual settings section is one that was individuallycreated by a user, so a user can freely set and modify any spacingamount any number of times. By dividing and saving the plurality ofspacing amount setting tables stored in the spacing amount setting file7 b as “default settings” that a user cannot modify and “individualsettings” that a user can freely modify, respectively, as shown in FIG.9, the ease of setting and modifying spacing amounts greatly increasesfor the user.

As shown in FIG. 5, the setting items in the inventive text compositionspacing amount basic settings are categorized as end of line, start ofline, and middle of line. Accordingly, a user knows at one glance towhich part of each line a setting item pertains. The spacing amountsetting items include 16 items, and it is possible to set three spacingamounts—“optimum,” “minimum,” and “maximum”—for each setting item. Inone implementation, the spacing amount settings are limited to these 16items.

As advocated in JISX 4051-1995, “Line Composition Methods for JapaneseLanguage Documents,” character classes can be defined according tocharacter composition attributes, such as the divisibility of characterssuch as text, and so on according to character width, character spacingand forbidden processing parameters. In the invention, in addition tostart of line, start of paragraph, and end of line, the following 16character classes are defined.

-   (1) Starting parenthesis    -   Example: (-   (2) Ending parenthesis    -   Example: )-   (3) Character that cannot appear at the start of a line    -   Example: /˜-   (4) Non-centered punctuation    -   Example: !?-   (5) Centered punctuation    -   Example: :;-   (6) Period    -   Example: .-   (7) Comma    -   Example: ,-   (8) Repeating characters that cannot be broken across lines    -   Example: —-   (9) Preceding abbreviation code    -   Example: $-   (10) Following abbreviation code    -   Example: %° C.-   (11) Full-width ideographic spaces-   (12) Hiragana-   (13) Japanese character other than (1) through (12) above-   (14) Full-width numeral    -   Example: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-   (15) Half-width numeral    -   Example: 0123456789-   (16) Half-width Roman text    -   Example: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

The characters used in Japanese language documents are classified into16 character classes as shown above and based on these character classesit is possible to set inter-character spacing, that is, the spacingamount between characters, according to whether a character disposed ina line is the start of a paragraph or the start of a line or the end ofa line, or if the character is inside a line according to whichcharacter classes a pair of adjacent characters belongs to. For example,if the previous character in a pair of adjacent characters inside a lineis kanji and the next character is hiragana, the previous character'scharacter class is “Japanese character other than above” and the nextcharacter's character class is “hiragana,” so the spacing amount betweenthese characters can be set as 50%, for example (half the width offull-width, i.e. one-half).

In one implementation of the invention the spacing amount between a pairof adjacent characters is set based on the character class of theprevious character and the character class of the next character, usingthe 16 character classes defined above and start of paragraph, start ofline, and end of line as parameters. FIG. 10 shows one example of a textcomposition spacing amount setting table set in this manner. As shown inFIG. 10, in one implementation of the invention the spacing amountsetting table lists the 16 previously described character classes, startof line and start of paragraph as parameters for “previous character” inthe vertical axis direction, and lists the 16 previously describedcharacter classes and end of line as parameters for “next character” inthe horizontal axis direction. Also, for example, if the character classof the previous character is “half-width Roman text” and the characterclass of the next character is “centered punctuation,” the spacingamount that should be set for this pair of characters is set at theintersection. In the example shown in FIG. 10, the three spacing amounts“optimum,” “minimum,” and “maximum” can be set at each intersection, ascan “priority,” which determines the type of sequence used in makingadjustments in this spacing amount in relation to other spacing amountswhen adjusting the spacing amount when doing line compositionprocessing. Furthermore, in order to avoid complexity, FIG. 10 shows arepresentative spacing amount setting and priority setting for only oneintersection, but the same sort of spacing amount and priority settingcan be done at each intersection in the spacing amount setting table inFIG. 10.

The spacing amount setting table shown in FIG. 10 basically forms a18·17 matrix, and four values can be set at each intersection of a rowand column, so a user can set 18·17·4 values in each spacing amountsetting table. If a user wants to set each value in the spacing amountsetting table as shown in FIG. 10, the user selects the detailedsettings mode. When a user selects detailed settings mode, the dialogbox shown in FIG. 7 is displayed on the CRT screen. FIG. 7 shows an casein which a spacing amount setting table with the file name “end of linepunctuation half-width” as the default setting, stored in the spacingamount setting file 7 b, has been selected. Also, previous character'scharacter class has been selected, and “starting parenthesis” has beenselected as that class, and examples of the contents of that class aredisplayed below. It is possible to select next character class insteadof previous character class. Any one of the 18 parameters as shown inthe table in FIG. 10 can be selected as the previous character class,and any one of the 17 parameters as shown in FIG. 10 can be selected asthe next character class.

In the example shown in FIG. 7 starting parenthesis is selected forprevious character class, so the 17 parameters from “startingparenthesis,” which is the next character class, to “end of line” aresequentially arranged in the vertical direction relative to this.Therefore the uppermost level in this arrangement shows the settingvalues for the spacing amount (optimum 0%, minimum 0%, maximum 0% andthe priority (none) when the previous character class is startingparenthesis and the next character class is starting parenthesis, andthe next level shows the setting values for spacing amount (optimum 0%,minimum 0%, maximum 0%) and priority 3 when the previous character classis starting parenthesis and the next character class is endingparenthesis.

As described above, in FIG. 7 the file name of the spacing amountsetting table for the default settings is “end of line punctuationhalf-width,” so a user cannot modify the setting values in this table,but if a user presses the “new” button and creates a copy of this tableand gives it a new file name, the user can freely modify the settingvalues by storing it in the spacing amount setting file 7 b as“individual settings.” Spacing amounts newly set by a user and newlystored in the spacing amount setting file 7 b in this manner can be usedin line composition processing.

As described above, a user can modify each setting value in the spacingamount setting table shown in FIG. 10 by selecting detailed settingsmode, but setting spacing amounts is not always performed frequently;often a user sets the preferred spacing amounts once and uses thosespacing amount settings repeatedly, and subsequently does not reset thespacing amounts for a long time. In addition, even when setting spacingamounts it is very rare that each setting value in the table shown inFIG. 10 needs to be modified and the items which many users need tomodify in general are often the same items.

In the invention it is possible for a user to select basic settings modeand simply and quickly set spacing amounts. We have studied the variousassociations between the character class of the previous character andthe character class of the next character in the FIG. 10 spacing amountsetting table, and grouped similar classes and formed a spacing amountassociation table having 16 links as shown in FIG. 8. Each linkindicated by the numbers 1 through 16 in the spacing amount associationtable shown in FIG. 8 is as follows.

-   -   1) Non-punctuation -> Starting parenthesis,    -   2) Ending parenthesis -> Non-punctuation,    -   3) Ending parenthesis -> Starting parenthesis,    -   4) Period -> Starting parenthesis,    -   5) Period -> Non-punctuation,    -   6) Comma -> Starting parenthesis,    -   7) Comma -> Non-punctuation,    -   8) Centered punctuation -><- Centered punctuation,    -   9) Half-width Roman text -><- Non-punctuation,    -   10) Start of paragraph -> Starting parenthesis,    -   11) Start of paragraph -> Non-punctuation,    -   12) Start of line -> Starting parenthesis,    -   13) Ending parenthesis -> End of line,    -   14) Period -> End of line,    -   15) Comma -> End of line,    -   16) Centered punctuation → End of line

Furthermore, “non-punctuation” includes characters that cannot appear atthe start of a line, non-centered punctuation, repeating characters thatcannot be broken across lines, preceding abbreviation codes, followingabbreviation codes, hiragana, Japanese characters other than the above,full-width numerals, half-width numerals, and half-width Roman text;these are character classes shown in the table in FIG. 8.

Also, the 16 links correspond to input (setting) items shown in the 16dialog boxes shown in FIG. 5. That is, the links 13)˜16) correspond tothe four setting items for “end of line” in the dialog box in FIG. 5,the links 10)˜12) correspond to the three setting items for “start ofline” in the dialog box in FIG. 5, and the links 1)˜9) correspond to thenine setting items for “middle of line” in the dialog box in FIG. 5. Forexample, the initial setting item in the section for “middle of line” inthe dialog box in FIG. 5 is shown as the setting item“non-punctuation→starting parenthesis” and this corresponds to the linkshown as “1” in the spacing amount association table in FIG. 8.Therefore, if the character class of the next character is “startingparenthesis,” this shows that the same spacing amount is set if thecharacter class of the next character is any one of “character thatcannot appear at the start of a line,” “non-centered punctuation,”“repeating characters that cannot be broken across lines,” “precedingabbreviation codes,” “following abbreviation codes,” “hiragana,”“Japanese characters other than the above,” “full-width numerals,”“half-width numerals,” and “half-width Roman text.” If a user sets 50%as the spacing amount for “optimum,” 0% for “minimum,” and 50% for“maximum” in the initial setting item “non-punctuation→startingparenthesis” in the “middle of line” section in the dialog box in FIG.5, that spacing amount setting is simultaneously set for the 10combinations of previous character class and next character classindicated by “1” in FIG. 8, and the user does not need to individuallyset 10 combinations. Also, simply setting the three spacing amounts foroptimum, minimum, and maximum for at most 16 setting items as shown inFIG. 5 is sufficient as the ordinary spacing amount setting. Inaddition, if a “priority” setting is used in adjusting the spacingamount in ordinary composition it often involves special composition, sothat it is excluded from the setting items in the basic settings dialogbox shown in FIG. 5. Accordingly, if the invention's basic settings areused the number of settings is reduced from 18·17·4 settings to 16·3settings compared to using detailed settings, and the user's spacingamount setting is greatly simplified.

Furthermore, FIG. 6 shows a case in which spacing amount setting valuesare displayed when “Japanese fractional ‘bun’ unit” display is selectedinstead of displaying spacing amount setting values as percentages (thatis, % of width of full-width character) in the FIG. 5 dialog box. A usercan display spacing amounts as a % display or Japanese fractional “bun”unit display by selecting either “%” or “bun” in a pull-down menu in thedialog box.

Next, we will explain an implementation for displaying icons for aplurality of character classes in a dialog box for text compositionspacing amount setting in accordance with the present invention.

First, the basic settings dialog box shown in FIG. 5 is provided with aleft side icon display column for displaying icons for the characterclass of the previous character at the left side of the dialog box andwith a right side icon display column for displaying icons for thecharacter class of the next character. Also displayed in the “end ofline” section are icons representing the character classes for thecombinations “ending parenthesis -> end of line,” “period -> end ofline,” “comma -> end of line,” and “centered punctuation -> end of line”in the left side and right side icon display columns, respectively.Displayed in the “start of line” section are icons representing thecharacter classes for the combinations “start of paragraph -> startingparenthesis,” “start of paragraph -> non-punctuation,” and “start ofline -> starting parenthesis” in the left side and right side icondisplay columns. Displayed in the “middle of line” section are iconsrepresenting the character classes for the combinations “non-punctuation-> starting parenthesis,” “ending parenthesis -> non-punctuation,”“ending parenthesis -> starting parenthesis,” “period -> startingparenthesis,” “period -> non-punctuation,” “comma -> startingparenthesis,” “comma -> non-punctuation,” “before and after centeredpunctuation,” and “non-punctuation before and after half-width Romantext and numerals” in the left side and right side icon display columns.

Furthermore, in the example of the basic settings dialog box shown inFIG. 5, the icons representing these character classes are fixed icons,that is, a user cannot select or modify these icons. As describedpreviously, in the basic settings mode the number of user-settablespacing amounts is limited to an optimum number, and all setting itemsare displayed in the basic settings dialog box. Therefore, the icondisplay in the dialog box can be fixed.

Next, in the case of the detailed settings dialog box shown in FIG. 7,there are basically 18·17·4 setting values for each spacing amountsetting table. Therefore, it is impossible to display all the settingitems for the detailed settings dialog box in one dialog box. Thespacing amount setter or the spacing amount setting routine 7 ctherefore stores icons representing a plurality of preselected characterclasses as a table as shown in FIG. 13B. Furthermore, the icon tableshown in FIG. 13B is an icon table for a specific font; if multiplefonts are used, the icon table shown in FIG. 13B needs to be preparedfor each font. Also, the font used in electronic composition is thedefault font; the font's glyphs may be smaller than the size (that is,full-width) of the embox (virtual body). Therefore the character classglyphs described above may be different in regard to what position theyoccupy in that font's embox and the magnitude of the size of that glyph,depending on the font used.

The icon table shown in FIG. 13B can be created, for example, byselecting classes representing a plurality of character classes for aspecific font and making the classes into icons and storing them in anicon table. In addition, a user can create separate icons and storethese in an icon table. Therefore each icon shown in the icon table inFIG. 13B shows the size of the embox of characters belonging to thatcharacter class, the glyph size, and the positional relationship of theglyph inside the embox. For example, the uppermost level in FIG. 13Bshows the icon representing “starting parenthesis.” This icon has thesize of the embox, but the icon shows (dotted line) that the glyph ispositioned within the right half of the embox and that no glyph ispresent in the left half of the embox. The character for “centeredpunctuation” class, fifth from the top, has the size of the embox, butfrom the icon one can easily see that there is one-fourth space at bothsides and the glyph is positioned in the center. In addition, one cansee at a glance from the icon that characters in the classes “half-widthnumeral” (fourth from the bottom) and “half-width Roman text” (thirdfrom the bottom) are half-width in size.

As shown in FIG. 7, input items are provided in the detailed settingsdialog box where a user can suitably select the character class of theprevious character and the character class of the next character.Furthermore, “previous character class” is shown in the input item inthe example shown in FIG. 7, to show that the character class of theprevious character is selected. “Starting parenthesis” is shown as theinput item next to “previous character class,” to show that “startingparenthesis” is selected as the character class of the previouscharacter. In the icon display column in the FIG. 7 dialog box, iconsrepresenting “starting parenthesis” are shown in a vertical string inthe left side of the icon display column for the previous character'scharacter class. In the FIG. 7 dialog box the previous character'scharacter class is selected, so opposite these are shown the variousicons for the 17 character classes, as is clear from the explanation ofthe spacing amount setting table in FIG. 10. The previous character'scharacter class is starting parenthesis, so the next character'scharacter class cannot be start of paragraph, and therefore the inputitem at the lowest level in this case is grayed out. In the FIG. 7dialog box four values can be set for the 17 setting items—optimum,minimum, maximum, priority—and it is possible to visually confirm in theicon display column which character class and which character class areset, thereby avoiding the occurrence of errors in spacing amountsetting.

When displaying the detailed settings dialog box shown in FIG. 7, thespacing amount setter or spacing amount setting routine 7 c controls theicons and related display in accordance with the algorithm shown in FIG.13A. Next, the procedure for modifying the FIG. 7 display will beexplained, with reference to the FIG. 13A algorithm. In the FIG. 7display, the previous character's character class is selected, and“starting parenthesis” is selected as the previous character's characterclass. The starting parenthesis icon, retrieved from the FIG. 13B classtable, is displayed in a vertical string in the icon display column forthe previous character's character class in the dialog box. If a userselects “character that cannot appear at the start of a line” in thelist box as the previous character's character class, the status changesto the dialog box shown in FIG. 11. In this case, first, “[small tsu]”,which is the icon in icon table FIG. 13B representing characters thatcannot appear at the start of a line, is displayed in a vertical stringin the icon display column for the previous character's character class,and replaces the starting parenthesis icon. The setting values foroptimum, minimum, maximum, and priority all change as well.

FIG. 12 shows the dialog box display obtained when, starting from theFIG. 7 dialog box display status, a user selects “following characterclass,” which represents the next character class, in the list box wherethe user is displaying “previous character class.” In this case, if thenext character's character class is starting parenthesis, there are 18possibilities for the corresponding previous character's characterclass, so the right side display and the left side display in the FIG. 7icon display column are switched. A spacing amount can also be set ifthe previous character class is start of paragraph, as shown in thelowest level.

Even if many setting items are present in detailed settings, thecharacter class and the character class set for each setting item aredisplayed as icons in a dialog box, so the possibility of mistaking thecontents of setting items is minimized.

A number of embodiments of the invention have been described.Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the followingclaims.

1. A desktop publishing (DTP) system, comprising: at least oneinter-character-class spacing amount setting table defininginter-character spacing amounts in line composition, the spacing amountsetting table defining spacing for a plurality of character classes,each character class grouping one or more similar characters, the systemusing the inter-character-class spacing amount setting table to setinter-character spacing amounts between pairs of contiguous charactersaccording to a character class of a previous character and a characterclass of a next character in each pair of contiguous characters; adisplay device for displaying electronic text that has been linecomposed; an input device for receiving user input; and means fordisplaying on the display device a dialog box for receiving a user inputsetting a spacing amount between the character class for the previouscharacter and the character class for the next character, and where thedialog box identifies particular character classes using an iconrepresenting the character class for the previous character and an iconrepresenting the character class for the next character.
 2. The DTPsystem of claim 1, wherein the plurality of character classes includesone or more of (1) starting parenthesis, (2) ending parenthesis, (3)characters that cannot appear at the start of a line, (4) non-centeredpunctuation, (5) centered punctuation, (6) period, (7) comma, (8)repeating characters that cannot be broken across lines, (9) precedingabbreviation code, (10) following abbreviation code, (11) full-widthideographic spaces, (12) hiragana, (13) Japanese characters other thancharacter classes (1) through (12), (14) full-width numeral, (15)half-width numeral, (16) half-width Roman text, (17) start of line, (18)start of paragraph, and (19) end of line.
 3. The DTP system of claim 1,further operable to receive a user selection of either the characterclass of the previous character or the character class of the nextcharacter in the dialog box.
 4. The DTP system of claim 3, wherein aleft side display column is provided for icons of the character classfor the previous character and a right side display column is providedfor icons for the character class of the next character in the dialogbox, the device further being operable to display an icon representing aselected character class, among a plurality of classes, for the previouscharacter in the left side display column, and to display an iconrepresenting a selected character class, among a plurality of classes,for the next character in the right side display column.
 5. A computerprogram product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium in adesktop publishing (DTP) system, comprising instructions operable tocause a programmable processor to: display on a display device a spacingamount saved in an inter-character class spacing amount setting table inresponse to a user selection in the inter-character class spacing amountsetting table defining inter-character spacing amounts in linecomposition, the spacing amount setting table defining spacing for aplurality of character classes, each character class grouping one ormore similar characters, the system using the inter-character-classspacing amount setting table to set inter-character spacing amountsbetween pairs of contiguous characters according to a character class ofa previous character and a character class of a next characters in eachpair of contiguous characters; and display in the dialog box an iconrepresenting the character class of the previous character and an iconrepresenting the character class of the next character.
 6. The computerprogram product of claim 5, wherein the plurality of character classesincludes one or more of: (1) starting parenthesis, (2) endingparenthesis, (3) Japanese characters tat cannot appear at the start of aline, (4) non-centered punctuation, (5) centered punctuation, (6)period, (7) comma, (8) repeating characters that cannot be broken acrosslines, (9) preceding abbreviation code, (10) following abbreviationcode, (11) full-width ideographic spaces, (12) hiragana, (13) Japanesecharacters other than character classes (1) through (12), (14)full-width numeral, (15) half-width numeral, (16) half-width Roman text,(17) start of line, (18) start of paragraph, and (19) end of line. 7.The computer program product of claim 5, further operable to receive auser selection of either the character class of the previous characteror the character class of the next character in the dialog box.
 8. Thecomputer program product of claim 7, further operable to: display a leftside display column for icons of the character class of the previouscharacter and a right side display column for icons of the characterclass of the next character in the dialog box; display the icon of theselected character class in the left side display column when acharacter class among a plurality of character classes is selected forthe previous character's character class; and display the icon of theselected character class in the right side display column when acharacter class among a plurality of character classes is selected forthe next character's character class.
 9. A desktop publishing (DTP)system, comprising: at least one inter-character-class spacing amountsetting table defining inter-character spacing amounts in linecomposition, the spacing amount setting table defining spacing forplurality of character classes, each character class grouping one ormore similar characters, the system using the inter-character-classspacing amount setting table to set inter-character spacing amountsbetween pairs of contiguous characters according to a character class ofa previous character and a character class of a next character in eachpair of contiguous characters; a display means capable of displayingelectronic text that has been line composed; an input means with which auser can perform input; and a spacing amount setting means that isoperable to start in response to user input, and to display on thedisplay means a dialog box for receiving a user input setting a spacingamount between the character class of the previous character and thecharacter class of the next character, and where the dialog boxidentifies particular character classes using an icon representing thecharacter class of the previous character and an icon representing thecharacter class of the next character.
 10. A computer readable recordingmedium recording a text composition spacing amount setting program forexecuting by computer in a desktop publishing system, comprising: aprocedure for displaying on a display means in dialog box format aspacing amount saved in an inter-character-class spacing amount settingtable when a user selects the inter-character-class spacing amountsetting table defining inter-character spacing amounts in linecomposition, the spacing amount setting table defining spacing for aplurality of character classes, each character class grouping one ormore similar characters, the system using the inter-character-classspacing amount setting table to set inter-character spacing amountsbetween pairs of contiguous characters according to a character class ofa previous character and a character class of a next character in eachpair of contiguous characters; and a procedure for displaying in thedialog box an icon representing the character class of the previouscharacter and an icon representing the character class of the nextcharacter.